


To kiss the hands of Death

by angelica_barnes



Category: Original characters - Fandom, Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Jessica is Death's daughter and Nico is Jessica's son, Love, Multi, leo is a mortal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-26
Updated: 2018-04-26
Packaged: 2019-04-28 07:31:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,053
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14444421
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/angelica_barnes/pseuds/angelica_barnes
Summary: Death's grandson falls in love with a mortal boy fated to die young in the middle of World War ll.





	To kiss the hands of Death

**Author's Note:**

> this is not happy in the slightest btw
> 
> i'm just apologizing in advance

It’s not that Jessica doesn’t like the Living, she does. They’re quite polite whenever she goes down there, but really, she prefers to be with the Dead. Being the princess of the Underworld can be rather daunting sometimes, but she has Dove to be with and Nico to raise.

Except her son seems to have disappeared.

She sighs as she peers down through the mirror that shows her the Living; sure enough, there’s Nico, talking to an elfish boy with red-brown eyes and cocoa skin. They are laughing, and so Jessica decides to give them a few minutes before she goes down to get him.

When she does, Nico smiles and takes her hand almost immediately.

“Mama, this is Leo.”

She gives the Living boy a warm smile, but seeing as she is basically Death himself, Leo shirks away. But he grins at Nico and waves goodbye before racing down the street. Jessica magices herself and her son away, scolding him all the way back to the Underworld.

“What were you thinking? You know what I’ve told you about befriending the Living! You could’ve killed that poor boy before his time!”

Nico grumbles an apology under his breath and runs off, no doubt to greet Dove, who’s just come through the door.

“Hey, my boy, how are you?”

Nico had gotten nothing from his father in terms of looks, except perhaps his pale skin. He has his mother’s dark eyes and dark hair, her bony figure and graceful manner of doing everything.

But still, he got his father’s playfulness and as it would seem, ten years later, his father’s rashness to save those he loved.

 

-

 

“I still don’t know why you sneak in to see me everyday,” Leo rasps, though he immediately reaches out and grasps Nico’s fingers with his as soon as Death’s grandson is there. “Your mother’s gonna kill you.”

His eyes are closed, but he smiles against Nico’s lips as the pale boy kisses him. He opens them when Nico pulls away, settling to whisper his question even with the danger of it, “How is it I’ve never died when you’ve touched me?”

Nico shrugs, taking Leo’s other hand in his and kissing the backs of both. “No idea. I asked Mom once. She ignored me.”

Leo chuckles and leans up for another kiss, which Nico gives him, and then the elfish boy suddenly bursts into a fit of coughing.

Nico turns away and then back again, handing his lover a glass of water. Leo smiles weakly and takes it, and then Nico’s hand again. He coughs, and the water in front of him turns red with the blood that sputters from his mouth.

Nico says nothing, only gives him a handkerchief, but Leo simply collapses back against the pillows and closes his eyes. Nico leans forward and kisses his lover’s forehead, but pulls back at the sound of a gasp.

Death stands there, lips pursed. Nico stands immediately, knocking back his chair with a rattle and positioning himself subtly in front of Leo, taking his grandfather’s wrinkled hands in his.

“Papa, why’re you here? Did Mom find out about Leo?”

Death shakes his head, sighing softly with sad eyes, patting his grandson’s shaking hands.

“Um, Nico -”

“Angel?”

Leo’s voice cracks as he mumbles his lover’s name, but Nico still turns and rushes towards him, taking the boy’s hands in his own and ignoring the tears rushing down his cheeks.

“Yeah, baby?”

Leo shifts and nuzzles his face into Nico’s chest, and Nico lets go of Leo’s hand to cradle his lover’s head and wrap the other arm around him. Leo’s fingers curl around the front of Nico’s skull t-shirt almost desperately.

Death watches with sad eyes.

“So why are you here, Gramps?”

Death shakes his head and then looks straight into his grandson’s eyes. Leo snores softly against Nico’s chest and Death bites his lip.

“For Leo, Neeks. I’m here on business.”

A second doesn’t pass before Nico pulls Leo closer and curls around him protectively.

“You can’t take him,” Nico whispers. “Please, Papa, you can’t take him from me.”

Death sighs. “You do realize you’d be closer to him if he was in the Underworld?”

Nico shakes his head frantically. “No, no, he needs to have a life. Even if I end up having to wait for him, I want to wait for him, because he needs to live a good and full life.”

Death gives his grandson a pitying smile. “The Living suffer more than the Dead.”

Nico starts to cry, waking Leo, who wraps his arms around the pale boy and holds on tight, presses kisses to Death’s grandson’s chest. Soft whispers of comfort escape his lips and Nico mumbles things back, quiet sobs still falling from his rosy mouth.

Death walks over and puts his hand on his grandson’s back, right over Leo’s fingers.

Slowly one set of whispers stops, and Nico sobs harder as Leo’s warmth slips away.

Then, there’s silence as Nico falls asleep in his grandfather’s arms.

 

-

 

For the first few days, Death allows his grandson down the long staircase leading from the palace to the Dead’s quarters. Leo is still lively, but now he’s cold, his breath white smoke and his fingers frigid icicles; Nico misses the warmth of those red-brown eyes.

Death has been called many unpleasant things, but never by his own grandson.

Nico often isn’t present for dinner, instead opting to stare out his window or visit Leo. Jessica worries constantly for him, Death knows, but there isn’t much he can do. Leo had reached the end of his time, and per his work, Death had had to take him to what many called a better place.

He’s been called freedom, too.

But then, it’s 1941, and in come pouring the lost souls, more than ever before than perhaps the Black Plague; victims of the gas chambers, the bombings, the war. The tunnels of the Underworld soon become too crowded for even Nico to brave, and with Nico’s visits now few and far between comes Leo’s inevitable rebirth.

Nico searches and searches, but can never again find a someone with the warmth he craves.

Death has been called many unpleasant things, but never before has he heard his own grandson wishing for him.

-

 

Nico’s wish was never granted.


End file.
